Re: [GSoC PATCH v9 2/5] repo: add the field references.format

> Hi Lucas
>
> On 07/08/2025 16:02, Lucas Seiki Oshiro wrote:
>> ++
>> +The returned data is lexicographically sorted by the keys.
>
> What's the reason for this? If I query three keys from a script then
> it is much easier to parse the output if I know the keys are going to
> appear in the same order that they were on the command line. If the
> command re-orders them my script now has to check the value of each
> key which results in a bunch of unnecessary string comparisons because
> it cannot determine the key from the position in the output. While we
> were producing json output there was a need to de-duplicate the keys
> when that output format was selected. However, we no-longer produce
> json and in any case de-duplication could have been achieved without
> sorting the input keys by using a hash table, or, as there is a small
> fixed number of keys, an array that records the keys we've already
> seen.